BARCELONA, Spain — Maybe Spain can convince its home fans the game doesn’t matter.
No way Kobe Bryant is buying it.
A game against the U.S. — the team that beat them for the Olympic basketball gold medal four years earlier — this time in front of their own crowd? The Spanish players are supposed to be OK with losing, because it’s only an exhibition?
“There’s not a chance,” Bryant said yesterday. “It’s not just practice. It’s impossible.”
Bryant might have come away with a different opinion if he’d listened to Spain’s players talk on the same floor about an hour earlier. They are excited about the game today (ESPN2, 4:30 p.m.) and will try to win, but not at the expense of their preparations for London.
“It’s an exhibition game. … at the end of the day you know you’re not going to show a lot of things to the other team,” Spain guard Jose Calderon of the Raptors said. “You’re not going to have a medal if you win or if you lost [today].”
The U.S. held off Spain 118-107 in Beijing to win gold in what U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski called “one of the great games in international basketball history.” The Americans pulled away after leading by just four with under 2 1/2 minutes left to win their first major title since the 2000 Olympics and are ranked No. 1 in the world.
Spain is No. 2, and nobody would be surprised to see the two teams play a gold-medal rematch on Aug. 12.
Bryant and Spain’s Pau Gasol are teammates with the Lakers, and Gasol said he’s looking forward to meeting up after they haven’t seen each other since their season ended in Oklahoma City in the second round of the NBA playoffs.
Bryant said Gasol is like a little brother, and that big brothers don’t let little brothers win.
“He doesn’t like to lose against anyone, but I’d like to maybe let him win [today] and maybe beat him in London,” Gasol said. “That’ll be ideal.”